Canary Wharf, Qatar Win Backing for London Shell Centre Project

May 13 (Bloomberg) -- Canary Wharf Group Plc and Qatar’s
sovereign-wealth fund won planners’ support to build 877 homes
and about 76,000 square meters (820,000 square feet) of offices
at the site of Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s London headquarters on
the banks of the River Thames.

Planning officials recommended that Lambeth Borough Council
approve the project by Braeburn Estates Ltd., a joint venture
between the Qatari Diar Real Estate Investment Co. unit of the
sovereign-wealth fund and Canary Wharf, the developer that
controls the financial district of the same name, according to a
filing published on the council’s website.

“The development would give rise to not only additional
jobs in the borough but would also contribute towards strategic
objectives for London in its promotion as a world city,” council
planners said in the document.

The project includes eight buildings ranging from five to
37 floors and it will retain the tower occupied by Shell since
the 1960s. About 20 percent of the homes will be for lower
income residents and the developers will pay about 24.5 million
pounds ($38 million) to the borough if the project is approved.

The joint venture is seeking to benefit from surging prices
and rising rents in the U.K. capital caused by planning
restrictions and a lack of development sites. Home prices in
London rose 10.6 percent in the year through March 13, aided by
a 12.2 percent gain in Lambeth, Academetrics Ltd. said in a May
10 study. Rents in London were about 8 percent higher in March
than a year earlier, LSL Property Services Plc said last month.